Embedded Linux News Briefs

SGI and
SuSE are collaborating on a
version of IRIS FailSafe for high-availability applications in
Linux environments. “High availability is an important piece of
the puzzle,” says Linus Torvalds.
(www.sgi.com/, www.suse.com)

“Which Linux will you use in future embedded system
projects?” The answer: Lineo
Embedix tops the embedded distributions list, followed
by PROSA ETLinux and
Lynx BlueCat Linux. Red Hat,
Debian and Caldera were the most popular standard distributions for
future embedded designs. Nearly two-thirds said they will pay for
outside services and support.
(http://www.linuxdevices.com/polls/)

Atmel announced a
Linux-based single-chip Internet appliance, the AT75C310, which
includes support for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and audio.
The device contains an ARM7TDMI CPU, RAM, DSPs, SPI, USART and
parallel I/O. (lel I/O.
(http://www.atmel.com/)

FSMLabs released version 2.2
of RTLinux which, among other enhancements, offers increased POSIX
compatibility.
(http://www.fsmlabs.com/)

PenguinRadio announced plans
for a low-cost Linux-based adapter that lets you hear thousands of
Internet radio stations through your stereo system. The company
will also produce a version for cars.
(http://www.penguinradio.com/)

Compaq's Western Research
Center is developing “Itsy”, a Linux-based open
platform for pocket computing. The purpose of Itsy is to foster
development of novel user interfaces, applications and research
projects. Itsy uses a StrongARM CPU.
(http://www.research.digital.com/wrl/itsy/)

Everybook Inc. announced a
Linux-based electronic book containing
Lineo's Embedix Linux OS and
Embedix Browser. Users can purchase and download digital books and
magazines from the Everybook Store.
(http://www.everybook.net/)

International Data
Corporation (IDC) says the “Post-PC Era” has arrived.
Their new report projects that shipments of consumer information
appliances will outpace those of consumer PCs by 2002.
(http://www.idc.com/)

IBM announced ViaVoice, a
set of speech recognition technologies and tools for Linux, saying
this is the first in a series of forthcoming IBM Linux solutions.
(http://www.ibm.com/software/speech/)

Kerbango, Inc. announced the
world's first standalone Internet radio. The Linux-based device
lets you access web-based streaming audio without a PC. The OS
inside is MontaVista's Hard Hat Linux.
(http://www.kerbango.com/)

Will Microwindows be the GUI
of choice for tomorrow's Linux-based embedded systems and
appliances? The open-source GUI offers both a “Win32 GDI API” and
a minimized X-compatible GUI.
(http://www.microwindows.censoft.com/)

ISDCorp has released Royal
Linux for systems that use non-Intel CPUs such as ARM, MIPS,
Motorola 68K/Coldfire and PowerPC processors.
(http://www.isdcorp.com/)